Even though the Rakyat managed to change the government through the ballot box in the 14th General Election, many structural issues remain. Malapportionment and gerrymandering of our constituencies remain, the Election Commission and other public institutions are still not independent, our electoral process and laws need to be updated and improved.
In over a decade of struggle and protests, BERSIH 2.0 had demanded for these reforms and the Pakatan Harapan coalition had incorporated many of these demands into their manifesto. Now is the time for BERSIH 2.0 to hold the PH government to account for their manifesto promises and to secure the reforms that we have fought so hard for. We want to see a Malaysia with strong institutions that guard our parliamentary democracy so that the will of the people will always be reflected through free and fair elections.
As such, BERSIH 2.0 is officially launching a fundraising campaign to raise RM1.4 million to support our work on electoral and institutional reforms for two years (2019 – 2020).
The funds will be utilised as follows:
- Programs – RM640,000
- Office operation – RM154,400
- Staffing – RM605,600
The funds for programs will be spent as follows:
- Electoral Reform – RM357,000
- Prepare 2 amendment bills, (1) to ensure the independence of the Election Commission and (2) to update the Election Offences Act
- Advocate for the establishment of a Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform
- Advocate for a new delineation process to rectify malapportionment and gerrymandering
- Advocate for absentee or improved postal voting rights for outstation and overseas voters
- Parliamentary Reform – RM48,000
- Reform the Parliament and restore the Parliamentary Services Act
- Update the Standing Orders of both Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara
- Election Monitoring and Observation – RM111,000
- Conduct 15 election monitoring and observations in the country.
- Conduct 15 training for election observers who will be recruited to monitor by-elections.
- Conduct 8 debates/forum among election candidates
- Develop a mobile app for filing of complaint on election offences
- Restoration of Local Government Elections – RM64,000
- Conduct a research to produce proposal and amendment bill to bring back local government elections
- Run one national consultation workshop on national campaign on bringing back local elections
- Organise 12 forums on local government elections nationwide
- Civic education on democracy for university students – RM30,000
- Conduct 10 forums/workshops on democracy and electoral reform in universities targeting university students and the youth
- Conduct 2 bootcamps on democracy and electoral reform for university students and the youth
- Conduct 10 voter registration drives and register 5,000 university students and youth as new voters
- Special Project on Sarawak State Election – RM30,000
- Conduct 50 days of voter registration drives in 2 years with the aim of registering 4000 new voters
- Conduct 10 voter education workshops in different cities in Sarawak
- Conduct 2 training of trainers’ workshop for volunteers in Sarawak in preparation for the monitoring and observation of the coming Sarawak state election
As one of the fundraising activities, BERSIH 2.0 will organise a fundraising dinner on 20 July 2019, 7.30pm at Hotel Armada, Petaling Jaya. The price of the dinner ticket will be RM1000 per ticket or RM10,000 per table.
The dinner will be featuring BERSIH 2.0 chairperson Thomas Fann and former chairpersons including National Laureate A. Samad Said, former IRC member Ambiga Sreenevasan and MP for Petaling Jaya Maria Chin Abdullah, as well as Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown and cartoonist Zunar.
To purchase tickets or for more information, kindly contact us at 03-79314444, 019-4380428 (WhatsApp) or [email protected] or visit https://www.bersih.org/fundraising/ (will put all fundraising info to this page on our website).
We also welcome donations of any amount from public members who cannot attend the fundraising dinner. Donations can be made through online bank in (with title of donation) / direct cash deposit (kindly send us the bank in slip) / cheque to the following account:
Account name: Bersih & Adil Network Sdn Bhd
Account number: 512295102931
Bank: Maybank (PJ Old Town Branch)
Swift code: MBBEMYKL
The reform in these two years will be extremely crucial for the future of our democracy. We thank you in advance for your continued support to BERSIH 2.0 to help secure these reforms.
Issued by,
BERSIH 2.0 Steering Committee